Bale lashed in the opener in the 24th minute from inside the area at a sparsely attended Santiago Bernabeu, while Ronaldo stretched Zinedine Zidane's side's advantage in injury time of the first half after a through ball from Karim Benzema, scoring his 300th Liga goal.

Getafe saw forward Loic Remy sent off for a second caution early in the second half, but reduced the deficit in the 65th minute through a controversial penalty from Francisco Portillo only for Ronaldo to wrap things up with a late header.

With star striker Neymar out injured, Angel Di Maria staked his claim to start against Real Madrid next week by scoring two goals as Paris Saint-Germain beat a sloppy Marseille side 3-0 Wednesday to reach the French Cup semifinals.

But Zidane, who has injury concerns of his own with Los Blancos, rejected the notion it will be a one-sided affair without the presence of the Brazilian superstar.

"With a game like Tuesday's coming up it was very important to be in a good mood for the next three days as when you lose you're in a bad way, so it was very important for us to win".

There's a very important date for us and for the club.

"We are very annoyed about that but it doesn't change anything and we have to look to the Getafe game, try to play well and win again. We will have to play in that game with a different intensity certainly, but we are ready for Tuesday". "I don't know what would have happened if he played for Atletico, I don't want to even imagine it", Valverde, who suffered repeatedly against Messi while in charge of Athletic Bilbao, said. "We'll have to see on Sunday if they do [train]". "Now we will keep trying to win, and with five rounds to go we will see what are our chances regarding the European competitions".

On Ronaldo, the manager said: "He'll be with us in Paris and I'm thrilled because he's enjoying an incredible run of form".

Israeli Police Question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In the meantime, Netanyahu is not obligated to resign and has indicated he will fight the charges while remaining in office. A Reuters cameraman saw a vehicle carrying two police officers pull to the prime minister's official home on Friday morning.

Wind advisory for Triad on Friday
Behind that front, unseasonably cool weather (for early March) will continue with a chance of rain/snow in the mountains. Snow, gusty winds and high temperatures in the low 30s are in the forecast today for Auburn and Cayuga County.

Meghalaya also goes to NDA, Conard Sangma to be CM
UDP chief Donkupar Roy had said that his party would support that group which is able to provide "a stable government". Meanwhile, BJP's Himanata Biswa Sharma has said that "BJP can't form govt on its own in Meghalaya".

Mandatory evacuation orders lifted
In Los Angeles County, a flash flood watch will go into effect late Thursday in areas near the Creek and La Tuna fire burn areas. They also said that individuals "close to and immediately downstream of choke points may be endangered" by the incoming storm.